Damon Albarn Preps 'Dr. Dee' Opera Recording

In between Blur reunion appearances, launching new group Rocket Juice and the Moon, and recording a Converse track with Andre 3000 and James Murphy, the musician found time to finish recording a new opera. The soundtrack to "Dr. Dee," which made its live premiere in the UK last summer, is due May 8 on Virgin.

The opera is based on the life on Dr. John Dee, an Elizabethan courtier who was also an astrologer and spy.

"I found that the more I researched, the more singing from the heart became the way forward," Albarn told the Guardian last year. "Incorporating any of the stuff I'd learned, it would be the stuff I kind of understood, and could emotionally express, rather than taking verbatim concepts from his mind."